Do you throw away £800 worth of electrical kit a year?

A new e-waste recycling scheme has estimated that the average British household throws away a staggering £800 worth of recyclable electrical appliances every year.

The figure equates to a foreign holiday, two months worth of food shopping or a brand new home cinema system. Dineromob is a specialist service, paying cash for unwanted items such as old mobile phones, ipods, games consoles, laptops and computer monitors.

The government calculates that around one million tonnes of electronic waste with a resale value of approximately £200 million fills Britain’s landfills each year. Figures from the United Nations paint an even grimmer figure, with an estimated 10 million tonnes of electronic waste sent to Europe’s tips per annum.

Mark Schneider, UK sales director at Dineromob said, “We’re constantly surprised by what people are prepared to throw away or consign to the back of drawers, cupboards, garages and attics after upgrading to the latest electronic device. While many of us have made small lifestyle changes such as taking our own bags to the supermarket and carpooling for the commute to work, the disposable mindset we hold in regards to electrical gadgets is potentially just as damaging to the environment as our pre-carbon footprint consciousness was.”

While dozens of electronic waste recycling companies are springing up to cash in on the mountains of discarded washing machines, television sets and refrigerators piling up at municipal dumps.

Dineromob takes a different approach. It offers owners with unwanted gadgets the chance to gain from their upgrade by selling their item for cash and will then recycle the product as appropriate.

Set up last October, the firm helps to recycle all manner of electrical gadgets from phones to PCs Not only does this environmentally-sound approach help to reduce the amount of waste shipped to locations such as China for disposal, it also means those who are upgrading can cash in on their old devices. The sum can be used to offset the cost of their new purchase.

Mr Schneider added, “Most of what is thrown away has many years of life left in it and was considered perfectly adequate before the newest model made its debut. A report by the BBC recently found that in the US, 350,000 mobile phones and 130,000 computers are thrown away each day – most of this ends up in landfill in Asia, contaminating the planet and leaving the former owner’s bank accounts the poorer for it.

“We want to encourage everyone to take a quick look in the kitchen junk draw, shelves in the garage and dusty boxes in the attic and then trade in their found electrical treasures rather than simply throwing them in a skip.”

To find out more about trading in your unwanted electrical appliances for cash, and to find out how much your items are worth, visit the Dineromob website